China has ‘zero common sense’ over actions during Ayungin airdrop—PH Navy

This aerial photograph taken from a military aircraft shows the dilapidated Sierra Madre ship of the Philippine Navy anchored near Ayungin shoal (Second Thomas Shoal) with Philippine soldiers on-board to secure the perimeter in the Spratly group of islands in the South China Sea, west of Palawan, on May 11, 2015. FILE PHOTO/Agence France-Presse
MANILA, Philippines — China Coast Guard’s (CCG) actions during the airdrop for the resupply mission in Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal shows its personnel have “zero common sense,” the Philippine Navy said on Tuesday.
During the May 19 mission, CCG personnel aboard two rigid-hull inflatable boats, which managed to come as close as five to ten meters, intercepted one of the four packages airdropped by a military aircraft for BRP Sierra Madre due to suspicions of carrying construction materials for the grounded naval outpost, according to Commodore Roy Vincent Trinidad, Navy spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea.
“They lack common sense,” Trinidad said in a press conference in Camp Aguinaldo on Tuesday. “We could not airdrop construction materials.”
READ: China Coast Guard seizes PH supplies for Ayungin
“Their narrative is that they do the blocking because of construction materials,” he also said. “I would like to point out that they have zero common sense.”
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Philippine navy personnel recovers what was left of the goods for troops aboard BRP Sierra Madre which was dumped by China Coast Guard (CCG) in the West Philippine Sea. CCG regularly attempts to intercept the delivery of supplies for the naval outpost to prevent the entry of construction materials. PHOTO FROM THE ARMED FORCES OF THE PHILIPPINES
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff General Romeo Brawner Jr. said the CCG personnel could be looking for construction materials.
Article continues after this advertisement“Perhaps they were looking for construction materials, but it was just a small package enough to carry food, items and enough for it float into the water,” Brawner said.
READ: Ayungin resupply ‘largely successful’ despite CCG’s ‘obstruction’—AFP
Trinidad said of CCG’s discovery: “When they realized it was all foodstuff they dumped this back into the sea so we were able to retrieve what they dumped back.”
The resupply mission for this World War II-era commissioned warship became the flashpoint of tensions between Manila and Beijing.
Beijing sought to block Manila’s attempt to repair the naval outpost grounded in the atoll since 1999 by using tactics like water cannon assaults and dangerous maneuvers against the latter’s vessels.
However, the AFP previously said that the military is entitled to repair the dilapidated warship since the shoal where it is aground is well within the country’s exclusive economic zone, about 106.3 nautical miles away from Palawan.
In line with this duty, the AFP employs what it calls an “operational mix” like usage of airdrop operations to evade CCG’s blockade there, but only to bring provisions for most of the time.
“In the past the airdrop was very successful, we did that several times already. But this time we don’t know what came into the minds of the Chinese coast guard when they captured our supplies,” Brawner said.
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